Sep 20, 2011

Freezer Cooking

Being a mom to three kids in school, and a daycare mom to 7, life gets a little out of hand! I as much as I love to cook, there are times when I don't have an hour to get a healthy meal together. I have always tried to have ground beef browned and cooked chicken cubed and in freezer bags. Lately I've been really getting into freezer meals, and am surprised at how easy it is to get some meals in the freezer for when you don't have time to cook.

Right now I have chicken breasts in a marinade, chicken pot pie filling, pie crusts, meatloaf, chicken tacos, pizza burgers and ziti. Most of these recipes come from a book I have had for about three years, and never used. Yes, that's right, it sat in my cupboard this whole time. oops
It's called 30 Day Gourmet Freezer Cooking I luuuurrrrrrve this book! The recipes are things my kids will happily eat, and they are so easy to put together. I have spent a total of four hours getting all these meals together, not bad!

It is so nice to know that if I am having a stressful day with crabby babies, I can just pull something (healthy!) out of the freezer, bake and enjoy!

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First Day of School


I just realized that I never posted any pics of the girls' first day of school! Here are my lovelies right before heading off to the bus (that picks them up at 6:45, ugh). As great as this pic is, my favorite is the next one...
Isn't this a classic??!!! Dragging their booties out of bed at 6 was not a fun venture. Rachel and Emma have adjusted quite well, but poor Alayna does NOT fair well at 6 in the morning. *sigh* Someday it will get better. Thankfully she loves school, so once she is truly awake, then she does fine.
I will admit that I am loving having them in school. Alayna has always been very trying for me, so having her in school has been a blessing. She loves everything about it, and her behaviors at home have dramatically improved since starting school.

I love being back into a routine again, and schedules. Although with our schedule right now, I feel like we're more busy that the summer, haha!!

Sep 16, 2011

Fall is Here

The days are cool, the kids are back at school, the leaves are changing, the kids are back at school and apples are abundant. Did I mention the kids are back at school? Oh, I think I did...

Melissa at The Inspired Room is having a Fall Nesting party. It made me drag one of my bins upstairs to see what I could find for my mantle. I know, what a sucky thing to have to do, right?!

I wanted to keep it simple, and not quite so bright as I have done in the past. My favorite thing is the book pumpkin, I have seen several of these floating around blog land. I tried my hand at making one, and it didn't turn out too shabby. Just don't turn it around, or look to the left of it....
I didn't have any cool antique looking books to use, so I used a Sue Grafton book (which was REALLY good) that wasn't in the greatest condition. I trimmed the edges, and used my antiquing stamp pad to brown the edges a bit. I shoved a stick in the middle, added ribbon and some leaves, and voila!

Happy Fall!

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Sep 3, 2011

Back to School is Almost Here!

Wowsers, I can't believe that in 3 days, I will have ALL my children in school. I know, right? I couldn't possibly be that old....

We are all excited for Tuesday, I am ready for a routine again, cool days, and less kids in daycare:) Little Alayna is stoked to be starting Kindergarten. She is most excited to play with the dollhouse...She has no idea what she's in store for....

Last Friday I decided to have a little "Back to School" party for the girls and daycare kids that are going back to school next week. I love having a theme, and seeing what I can make with stuff I already have.

I made this banner with some scrapbook paper I had, and hot glued it onto some green ribbon.

I love this Back to School wreath, Emma and I worked on this one afternoon (whomever posted it, thank you! I can't find that blog, boo...)

I also made a pencil vase and some ruler signs with scrapbook paper.

I took a large sheet of paper, and wrote little notes to all the kids that were starting school, they loved reading those at breakfast! We played some school related games and for snack I made homemade ice cream and fudge sauce and then had a little sundae bar that they could add sprinkles, marshmallows and chocolate chips. I also found some cute little photo frames they could decorate, and then made them little gift bags with some bookmarks, stickers and cute little crayon erasers (all thanks to the $1 Target area!!).

All in all it was a fun day, and I am happy to say that I will have no more 12 kid days.....ahhhh...

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